JORN: Dio

Produced by Tommy Hansen

Released: 2 July

In some cases, timing is everything. Jørn Lande began working on this tribute to his hero early last year, wrote a massive, Dio-esque homage to open it, finally got it done and then, on the eve of its release, the man it is dedicated to died. Now, what should have been a testimonial has become a memorial. The release of Dio (the album) was unfortunately announced the same week that Dio the man passed on, prompting calls from the peanut gallery that this was nothing but a heartless rip-off. Even with today's studio technology, though, it would be almost impossible to have knocked out an album as great as this in the short time since May 16, and Dio -- artwork and all -- has been in the can since before that, so arse to that theory.

If ever there was a guy who could successfully pull off a set of Dio covers, Jørn Lande is the man. In fact, with a voice so similar to the master, it would have been almost a disappointment if he hadn't done this, if not now then at some time in the future. On tracks like "Lonely is the Word", "Lord of the Last Day" and "Sunset Superman", Jørn is such a convincing mimic you could be forgiven for thinking you're listening to Dio himself. Possibly even Dio would have had trouble telling the difference. The resemblance is beyond remarkable: "Sacred Heart" and the live version of "Straight Through the Heart" should rightly give any listener chills.

In helping to lift this to a level of greatness beyond the limit of awesome, Jorn (the band) equal their singer's phenomonal achievement, doing for the music what he does for the vocals. The guitar team of Tore Moren, Tor Erik Myrhe and U.D.O.'s Igor Gianola step out with some stunning work that sets the songs ablaze. "Song for Ronnie James" is a majestic eight-minute opus that Dio himself could have written, and was intended for him to hear. The real tragedy of this album is that he never got to. The triumph of it is that it's brilliant.

1. Song for Ronnie James
2. Invisible
3. Shame on the Night
4. Push
5. Stand Up and Shout
6. Don't Talk to Strangers
7. Lord of the Last Day
8. Night People
9. Sacred Heart
10. Sunset Superman
11. Lonely is the Word - Letters from Earth
12. Kill the King
13. Straight Through the Heart (live)

Rating: 95%

VARIOUS ARTISTS: Standing on the Outside: The Songs of Cold Chisel

Released: 2007


Cold Chisel is one of the most important bands in the history of Australian rock music, a group that was so popular they actually sold more records after they split up than they did when they were together. During the 1980s, Cold Chisel probably got heard on more radio stations, more jukeboxes and at more karoake bars around the country by more people than any other Aussie artist, including AC/DC. This level of over-exposure probably led to a dilution their true importance as one of nation's defining rock acts. Indeed, as the 90s really got going, admitting to being a fan of Cold Chisel or that doyen of rock party animals, Jimmy Barnes, was akin to admitting to being a flanno-wearing, VB-slurping, Collingwood-supporting redneck bogan.


Almost another decade later however, and Cold Chisel fandom has enjoyed another resurgence with their songs being exposed to a new generation of listeners through the auspices of shows like Australian Idol and people like Tim Rogers teaming up with Barnesy. This long overdue tribute album was the culmination of this resurgence, and the results could hardly have been better. Standing on the Outside was one of the best albums of 2007, and had me singing along to several artists whom I would normally never even listen to. While quite a few are relatively faithful to the originals -- You Am I's "Houndog" for example, and "Rising Sun" by The Living End -- those that have been adapted to a particular artist's style are the real highlights. Troy Cassar-Daley turns "Bow River" into an upbeat country rocker and Paul Kelly offers a stripped-down, rootsy reading of "Khe Sahn", giving it back much of the meaning that so much over-playing had sapped from it. "Choir Girl's" careful treatment of abortion was always going to be given a paricular poignancy when sung by a female, and Katie Noonan does precisely this. The fact that virtually all of these tracks convert so well only emphasises how great these songs were in the first place.

Only occasionally does the album take a wrong step, and when it does it almost spoils everything. Alex Lloyd's strange acoustic reading of "You Got Nothing I Want" completely misfires. It just doesn't come across as the venomous pouring of spite that was the original and Something For Kate's rendering of "When the War is Over" in their typical gloomy style completely sucks all the hope out of it. If the other songs here weren't as good as they are, these two (particularly Lloyd) could well have killed the entire project. On every other level, however, Standing on the Outside is a masterpiece, one of the best tribute albums ever.

1. "Rising Sun" - The Living End
2. "Standing on the Outside" - Dallas Crane
3. "Forever Now" - Pete Murray
4. "No Sense" - Ben Lee
5. "My Baby" - Thirsty Merc
6. "Water Into Wine" - Evermore
7. "Khe Sahn" - Paul Kelly
8. "Bow River" - Troy Cassar-Daley
9. "Saturday Night" - Grinspoon
10. "Houndog" - You Am I
11. "Choir Girl" - Katie Noonan
12. "When the War is Over" - Something for Kate
13. "You Got Nothing I Want" - Alex Lloyd
14. "Cheap Wine" - Shane Nicholson
15. "Four Walls" - The Waifs
16. "Flame Tress" - Sarah Blasko
17. "Janelle" - Augie March
18. "Shipping Steel" - The Flairz feat. Dave Larkin of Dallas Crane

Rating: 92%

RONDELLUS: Sabbatum

Produced by Mihkel Raud
Released: 2002

A YouTube video of some guys performing "Hallowed be Thy Name" on a harp put me in mind of this strange little album from the Estonian medieval chamber orchestra Rondellus. If classical versions of Metallica songs weren't quirky enough, on Sabbatum Black Sabbath classics have been translated into authentic 14th Century chamber music! It's a bold and extremely interesting experiment that doesn't always succeed but makes for a pretty essential listen. Seriously, everyone needs to hear this at least once.

Rondellus do rather more than just strip back Sabbath’s songs to acoustic versions played on hurdy-gurdys, bagpipes and lutes which is what I probably actually expected when I dared to give this a listen. Instead, the songs have been completely deconstructed and transcribed into a medieval style, complete with lyrics chanted in Latin. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, because occasionally the arrangements and instrumentation are given prominence at the expense of the melody. This results in some tunes literally getting lost in the translation: 'War Pigs' and 'Symptom of the Universe' could be almost any song by anyone and 'After Forever', one of my favourite ever songs, is totally unrecognisable.

Nevertheless, the effect elsewhere is quite remarkable, if still somewhat bewildering. ‘Magus’ is quite obviously ‘The Wizard’ even with a Gothic harp and fiddle taking the place of guitar and harmonica, and ‘Solitudo’, ‘Planetarum vagatio’, ‘Via gravis’ and ‘Architectus urbis caelestis’ are all quite distinctly the songs they are meant to be, proving that even when performed in a musical style removed from their original form by 600 years, a great song remains a great song.

It's hard to know exactly what sort of audience this album is really aimed at, but one thing's for sure. When it comes to unique renditions of Black Sabbath material, Sabbatum takes the cake.

1. Verres Militares (War Pigs)
2. Oculi Filioli (Junior's Eyes)
3. Funambulus Domesticus (A National Acrobat)
4. Symptoma Mundi (Symptom of the Universe)
5. Post Murum Somnii (Behind the Wall of Sleep)
6. Post Aeternitatem (After Forever)
7. Magus (The Wizard)
8. Solitudo (Solitude)
9. Rotae Confusionis (Wheels of Confusion)
10. Planetarum Vagatio (Planet Caravan)
11. Via Gravis (A Hard Road)
12. Architectus Urbis Caelestis (Spiral Architect)

Rating: 72%

RUDE AWAKENING: A Tribute to Thin Lizzy

Released: 2007

I'm really not sure what to make of this. Bands doing covers albums aren't unusual these days, but bands dedicating entire albums to one artist's work are rare. And those that are out there are generally shit (Six Feet Under, I'm looking at you). Rude Awakening is a band that has been around in some form since the mid-80s according to their extensive but confusing bio, with a short string of albums and former lead vocalists behind them. In recent years it would appear they have reinvented themselves as a Thin Lizzy tribute band, the end result of which is this 13-track CD.

Thin Lizzy invented twin-guitar heavy metal, and indeed if it hadn't been for them then Iron Maiden would have ended up sounding like Jethro Tull, so any band attempting a tribute hasa heavy responsibility to ensure it is done with the respect this most important but these days oft-overlooked Irish group deserves. Rude Awakening has all but totally succeeded with A Tribute to Thin Lizzy. So good is this album that the band has been invited to Dublin to perform at a show celebrating what would have been Phil Lynott's 58th birthday in August.

This is Lizzy right down to the finest details. Only "Wild One" is a bit on the ordinary side; otherwise, this is close to superb. Mitch Urban pulls off a near-perfect Lynott impression most of the time and the guitar team of Johnny Goodwin and Bill Sablan nail everything. "Emerald" was so perfect it almost made me weep.

The only question I have to ask is why bother? There's no shame in being a Thin Lizzy tribute band when you're as good at it as Rude Awakening, but with so many Lizzy compilations available, most with the same tracks as this, it does seem a bit pointless to have spent time and money recording such a thing. It is excellent though, so at least it wasn't a wasted effort.

I'm not sure what Gary Moore would think of it, but Lynott himself would probably approve.

1. Jailbreak
2. Don't Believe a Word
3. Hollywood (Down On Your Luck)
4. Wild One
5. Johnny the Fox
6. Cowboy Song
7. The Boys are Back in Town
8. Emerald
9. Still in Love With You
10. Massacre
11. It's Only Money
12. Sha La La
13. Warrior

Rating: 92%

VARIOUS ARTISTS: Nativity in Black

Executive Producer: Bob Chiappardi
Released: 1994

These days it's easy to be cynical about so-called tribute albums. Different ones seem to crop up all the time for various reasons, from fund-raising to memorials to plain exploitation by a label or artist. It's also fair to say that almost all of them are worthless beyond a couple of songs of two, if that.

But not this one. The second volume that appeared a few years later may have been just a cynical promotional tool for Ozzfest, but this one had some effort put into it. Indeed, according to the booklet, Bob Chiappardi spent two years on this. This amount of dedication really shows, because Nativity in Black is one of the best albums of its kind. Apart from Faith No More's rather flippant live reading of "War Pigs" (a song that Mike Patton reportedly really didn't like), all of the artists here treat the material with a deep respect and for the most part their versions are solid re-interpretations rather than attempts at straight covers. It's hard to pick a bad one out of this bunch, in fact. Clear highlights though are the ridiculously heavy version of "Supernaut" from Al Jourgenson's 1000 Homo DJ's and Type O Negative's creepily Hammer House of Horror-like "Black Sabbath" that ends with an invocation to Satan. Corrosion of Conformity's deliriously good "Lord of This World" is also a clear stand-out and Sepultura make "Symptom of the Universe" sound like one of their own songs. Bruce Dickinson was teamed with a flash-in-the-pan American thrash band called Godspeed for "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" and made something special from it. Just as special though is track eight, a version of "The Wizard" by a conglomeration calling itself Bullring Brummies aka Geezer Butler, Bill Ward, Rob Halford, Wino from St. Vitus and Fight's guitarist Brian Tilse. That's a slice of metal history right there people, and with this being the only recording they ever did together it makes Nativity in Black that much more significant. Versions released out the US also include a version of "Solitude" by Cathedral that was obviously stuck on as an after thought, although the band themselves didn't think of it as one and considering how much like Sabbath Cathedral is for them to mess it up would have been unthinkable.

Tribute albums come and go, but the truly great ones leave a mark of their own. Nativity in Black is one of those. It might be difficult to find these days, but it's worth the effort.

1. Biohazard - After Forever


2. White Zombie - Children of the Grave


3. Megadeth - Paranoid


4. 1000 Homo DJ's - Supernaut


5. Ozzy Osbourne with Therapy? - Iron Man


6. Corrosion of Conformity - Lord of This World


7. Sepultura - Symptom of the Universe


8. Bullring Brummies - The Wizard


9. Bruce Dickinson with Godspeed - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath


10. Ugly Kid Joe - N.I.B.


11. Faith No More - War Pigs


12. Type O Negative - Black Sabbath


13. Cathedral - Solitude

Rating: 95%